A long time ago in a forum far, far away there was a Thread called "Whatever Happened To The Orbital Engine?"

This thread was placed by a young and bad tempered forum warrior who was constantly tempted by the dark side of the force to insult people he did'nt like online.

Despite his immaturity he posted some informative posts...one of which detailed the VERY public design and proving of a revoloutionary petrol motor in Perth, Western Australia.

One day this thread simply..."dissapeared" and the forum ADMIN refused to give an explanation.

The young internet warrior, lacking maturity and high on additive affected 2 minute noodles rampaged about the internet pissed at forum owners attitude.

Now, after much time in the swamps and deserts of the far flung planets leading an ascetic life...taming his pasions...said internet warior humbly asks the mighty Makow if he could give an honest answer on HOW and perhaps WHY "that" particular thread of all threads dissapeared?

The engine was a 2 stroke with a revoloutionary fuel injection system. The original was even MORE radical but Ford decided "uptooling" there factories would be too expensive.

It could go 1000km on 70 liters of fuel at 130kmh. Lower speeds and the results are even better.

Fact is there was minimal power loss with the increase in fuel saving.

An accross the board %30-%50 fuel saving with no powr loss was possible accross the board with any vehicle straight off the mark.

All pretty much standard technology.

Ford bought him out for 190 million. The patents and test cars sit in a warehouse in the U.K.

The AMAZING thing is this ALL happened over a ten year period right under the publics nose and NO ONE gave a shit. The MSM here reported the progress continually and no one bothered to ask..."whatever happened to the orbital engine?"

The Sarich orbital engine is a type of internal combustion engine, featuring rotary rather than reciprocating motion of its internal parts. It differs from the conceptually similar Wankel engine by using a shaped rotor that rolls around the interior of the engine, rather than having a trilobular rotor that spins "in place".

The advantage is that there is no high-speed contact area with the engine walls, unlike in the Wankel where edge wear is a problem. However, the combustion chambers are divided by blades which do have contact with both the walls and the rotor, and are said to have been difficult to seal due to the perpendicular intersection with the moving impeller.

The orbital engine was invented in 1972 by Ralph Sarich, an engineer from Perth, Australia, who worked on the concept for years without ever producing a production engine. A prototype was demonstrated, running on the bench with no load

The Sarich Orbital engine has a number of fundamental, unsolved problems that have helped keep it from becoming a practical engine. Amongst these are key components that cannot be cooled and others that cannot readily be lubricated. It is very susceptible to overheating. At one press conference where Ralph Sarich presented the engine, automotive engineer Phil Irving (designer of the Vincent Motorcycle and Brabham Formula One engines) pointed out a number of technical reasons why the engine would not work (eg, excessive pressure in contact areas).

A conspiracy theory known to almost all mechanically-inclined Australians holds that the patent for the Sarich Orbital engine was exclusively licensed and then suppressed by Ford, perhaps in order to prevent a drop in oil prices, or simply to maintain the value of existing manufacturing facilities, should the highly efficient engine displace conventional piston engines.

More widely, the case is seen as a defining example of a syndrome of 'good invention, poor development' felt by many nations, with an unusually high number of good inventions becoming successful products only once they have been moved off-shore, and with economic returns on them not being returned to the nation's economy.

It needs to be noted that novel engine types are conceived in very great numbers, but overcoming the technical difficulties of producing an impressive prototype is exceedingly rare, even where investment substantially exceeds the cost of machining and assembling components. In other words, novel designs tend to be incomplete designs.

Looking at a diagram of it, I would have to agree that overheating may have truly been a problem with this design.

What you have said could also apply to a small jet engine applied to a small car.

Pardon the outburst, just some left-over anger from what transpired on Club Conspiracy before the take-over and some apprehension as to where, what I consider to be ONE of the most important threads I authored while Club Conspiracy was owned by Henry Makow, had landed.

Pardon the outburst, just some left-over anger from what transpired on Club Conspiracy before the take-over and some apprehension as to where, what I consider to be ONE of the most important threads I authored while Club Conspiracy was owned by Henry Makow, had landed.

The rest of us considered it to be the most boring thread you ever authored.

You baseless accusations got you banned from most of the Springsteen forums so you had to bring it here. We were all quite suprised how Henry actualy tolerated you and never banned you for life.